Process of disintegrating fibrous material.



UNITE STATES new one RAY I. PERRY, 0F MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO BARRETT -MANUFAC- TUBING- COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF WEST VIRGINIA.

PROCESS OF DISINTEGRATING FIBROUS MATERIAL.

No Drawing.

To 012 whom it may concern Be it known that I, RAY P. PERRY, a citizen of the United States, residing in Montclair, New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes of Disintegrating Fibrous Material, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the process of disintegrating fibrous material while in adherent contact with a gummy cementing binder, and has for its object an improvement over the use of water or moisture to facilitate the separation of the individual fibers without unduly breaking, tearing or shortening the length of the fibers in the operation. It has heretofore been proposed to use water or moisture to loosen the coherence and adherence of the individual fibers to each other, as well as in some cases to soften the so-called sizing used in the manufacture of some papers, which increases the difficulty of drawing or pulling the fibers apart without unduly tearing or breaking them. Such use of moisture or water has certain disadvantages, because it not only results in water or moisture being present'in the final composition, unless it is driven off by heating with considerable difliculty and expense, but also the presence of an undue amount of water in the fibers naturally reduces the strength with which certain binders, such as asphalt, pitch, etc., will adhere to the fibers, and therefore weakens the product. As stated before, the moisture may be gradually expelled by prolonged heating of the fibrous composition. but this is expensive in time, labor, fuel and investment in machines suitable for handling the material.

I have discovered that the advantages heretofore incident to the use of moisture or Water can be secured by using a mixture, preferably an emulsion, of water and a suitable oil. In a certain process, for example, it has been proposed to use as much as an equal weight or more of water, figured on the weight of the fibrous material so as to moisten the same and permit easy disintegration. By the present invention the amount of moisture may he, say, out in half and yet equally satisfactory results be secured. To a given weight of water I add, say, one-fourth or one-fifth its weight of suitable oil and subject this mixture to a very thorough agitation or mixing process,

Patented Mar. 28, 1916.

Serial No. 16,471.

so as to cause a physical emulsion to be formed. By suitable oil I mean an oil of such a character as to form a good union with the binder to be used when disintegrating the fibrous material. For example, if coal tar pitch is to be used as the binder in the fibrous composition, we may select a coal tar oil for the purpose in hand, and similarly for an oil asphalt binder we select a petroleum oil, preferably of the same crude oil as that from which the aforesaid asphalt was produced. \Ve are introducing, therefore, an oil in each case which is not foreign to the nature of the binder to be used, and this oil being, as it were, of the same family as the binder, will readily unite with the same.

In making the emulsion by agitation of the oil and water together, I may add a material such as caustic soda which will facilitate such emulsifying process and produce a more permanent emulsion. The emulsion of oil and water may be applied to the fibrous material in any suitable way, as for example, by spraying over the fibrous material. The water penetrates the fibers in most cases, whereas the oil coats the outside of the fiber, although it may, to a certain extent, penetrate. it. When, therefore, the binder is added to the fibrous material the oil serves to assist the adhesion or bonding of the binder to the fibers in much the same way that the use of suitable oil applied on wet or damp surfaces of concrete or stone will enable a material like asphalt, if applied hot, to adhere firmly; whereas the asphalt would not adhere firmly if applied directlv to the damp or wet stone or concrete. This appears to be due to the fact that in such cases the oil adheres firmly to the damp or wet surface or a portion of same, and the asphalt adheres to the oil so that the oil serves as a necessary intermediary to permit the binding and adhering of the asphalt to the wet or moist concrete or stone. This increased adherence of the binder to the fibers naturally strengthens the product. The oil may also serve to decrease the adherence and coherence of the fibers in the original fibrous material to each other, acting to some ex tent as the water does.

The use of a straight oil instead of an emulsion does not work satisfactorily, be-

- cause experience shows that certain fibrous materials such as paper which have been aggregated in a process using water, will be easily disintegrated again to the elementary fibers by the use of water, but not satisfactorily by the use of any other liquid. It is a recognized property of cellulose that it has an aiiinity for water and that it swells to a considerable degree when wet with water. This swelling causes the fibers to loosen their hold on each other.

Difl erent fibrous .materials must be treated according to their individual requirements, but in general I have found that with any fibrous material which requires the use of moisture or water to assist in disintegration in connection with a binding material, the percentage of water may be reduced and the adherence of the binder to the fibers during and after the disintegrating process may be increased, by substituting for the water an emulsion of water and a suitable oil.

The process is particularly useful in con nection with the manufacture of a fibrous bituminous composition such as is described in the patent of James C. Woodley, No. 1,156,122, dated October 12, 1915, in which paper or other fibrous material is first wet or moistened and is then, by mixing and kneading it while in adhering contact with a bituminous or other gummy binder, disintegrated and distributed in fibrous form throughout the mass. By substituting for the water used in that process an emulsion composed of half the usual quantity of water and one-third as much of a suitable oil, this invention reduces the cost of the process and improves the product.

lVhat I claim is 1. In the process of disintegrating fibrous material while in adhering contact with a gummy binder the improvement which con-' sists in adding a mixture of water and an oil which is adapted to unite with the binder.

2. In the process ofdisintegrating paper while in adhering contact with a gummy bituminous binder the improvement which consists in adding a mixture of water and an oil which is adapted to unite with the binder.

3. The process of producing a fibrous gummy product which consists in subjecting a fibrous mass to the action of oil and water to soften it and disintegrating said mass in intimate adhering contact with a gummy binder without destroying its fibrous character.

4:. The process of producing a fibrous bituminous product which consists in subjecting paper to the action of water and a suitable oil to soften it and cause it to unite readily to a bituminous binder and disintegrating the paper in intimate adhering contact with a bituminous binder without destroying its fibrous character.

5. The process of producing a fibrous as phalt product which consists in subjecting a fibrous mass to the action of an emulsion of water and petroleum oil to soften it and cause it to unite readily to asphalt, and disintegrating said mass in intimate adhering contact with a mass of asphalt without destroying its fibrous character.

6. The process of'producing a fibrous asphalt product which consists in subjecting paper to the action of an emulsion of water and petroleum oil to soften it and cause it to unite readily to asphalt, and disintegrating such paper in intimate adhering contact with a mass of asphalt without destroying its fibrous character.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto si ned m name.

y RAY P. PERRY. 

